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Today's Features

It’s lean times at the Venue Theatre Company in Conifer, but not in the usual sense: the education-based youth theater is in short supply of space, funds and extra hands — all the consequences of success.

Evergreen Fine Art Gallery will be celebrating its 25th anniversary Saturday, conjuring memories of the many events held at the high-end gallery over the years and the artists it has championed.

The festivities begin at 2 p.m. and will feature more than 15 prominent artists who have been favorites at the gallery. Stacey Patterson, Pem Dunn and Robert Spooner will be on hand featuring recent works, and Edward Aldrich will conduct live demonstrations. Models will mix with the crowd displaying Andrea Li’s handcrafted jewelry.

Once again the Evergreen Chorale, along with the Jefferson Symphony Orchestra, will embrace the season with their annual Christmas production. This year holiday classics and the mini-opera “Amahl and the Night Visitors” will be presented Friday evening and Sunday afternoon at two separate locations. Because both shows promise to draw a huge audience, the opera and musical selections will be performed at Denver’s 100-year-old Central Presbyterian Church on Friday and at Rockland Community Church on Sunday.

The heat was on Nov. 12 for the recruits in the Evergreen Fire/Rescue firefighter academy: They fought actual fires.

The blazes were controlled in the department’s burn training building, but the flames and smoke were real — and the 18 recruits were both excited and apprehensive about practicing what they had learned for the past three months.

The Evergreen Chorale will welcome a guest performance of “James and the Giant Peach” on Sunday at Center/Stage Theatre, acted and directed by the Phamaly Theatre Company from Denver. This professional-grade musical is for the whole family and promises to provide a festive path toward Thanksgiving.

West Jefferson Elementary students were given a special holiday treat on Friday: They attended the performance of a new Christmas play in ballet form.

Peak Academy of Dance, which is a five-minute walk from the school, performed “A Christmas Eve Ghost Story” for the students.

The story is written by Danielle Heller, owner of the dance studio, and is being published this year. In a strange twist, she wrote the book to fulfill her need for a new show that dancers at the studio could perform for the holidays.

Last Friday, Conifer’s Venue Theatre Company kicked off its fourth season with a stage adaptation of the 25-year old Disney film “Beauty and the Beast.”

Directed by Nelson Conway, the three-hour musical sees nearly 30 students from five area high schools share the story of how Prince Adam — transformed into the animalistic Beast by an enchantress after refusing her shelter — captured the heart of bookish but kind Belle.